Thirty two under 16 school rugby teams in the country were seen in action at the premier cup under16 tens rugby tournament which was played over here in Kandy at the Bogambara Stadium and Digana Sports Complex, organized by the Sri Lanka Schools rugby Association, this time there was no sponsor for the event. A big hand should go to the President of School rugby Kamal Ariyasinghe the principal of Dharmaraja College and Secretary Nirodha Wijerama and the rest of the committee for doing a good job.
It was nice to see the thirty two teams in action and the Cup championship was won by Lalith Athulathmudali College Mountt. Lavinia and the runner-up were Central College Maharagama.The Plate event was won by Dharmapala College Pannipitiya and Debarawewa Centreal College were the runner-up. Then in the Bowl event Presidents College Maharagama champions and Ibbagamuwa Central College Kurunegala runner-up. In the Shield D.B. Welagedera College were the Champions and Royal College Panadura runner-up.
The young up and coming rugger players gave a superb display of rugby and showed that they were well guided by their coaches, the displays of run and pass rugby was excellent.Cup champions Lalith Athulathmudali College’s top player N. Tissera was awarded the player of the match award.
JR Jayewardene trophy – Royal – Trinity football
Trinity College played Royal College in their fifth game for the JR Jayewardenet Trophy at the Royal College grounds, which ended in a one all draw and the trophy was shared by both schools for six months each. After a nil all first half it was Trinity who scored first and later Royal snetted a goal to make it one all. Then in the under 18 game Royal were able to score four goals against one and pocket the game . In the under 16 game Royal beat Trinity b 3 goals to nil.
The first J.R. Jayewardene trophy encounter was played in the year 2017, which game ended in a draw. In the following year 2018and 2019 Trinity won, and then in the year 2020 and 21 matches were not played due to the pandemic. This years game was the fifth in the series and last year’s game 2022 was played at Pallekele. In the senior game Royal College gave a good display of football to beat Trinity College by two goals to nil after leading 1-0 at half time. The goal scorers were Mohamed Zaneer and Ilman Rizan. The win gave them the J.R. Jayewardene trophy. The under 14 A game was a draw with both sides scoring a goal each. Azman Khan scored for Royal and S. Ekanayake for Trinity. The under 14 B game went in favour of Trinity 3-1 and the goal scorers for the winners were Abdul Malik (Trinity) two goals and one goal by Puneth de Silva. Mohamed Sabri scored for Royal. The under 16 game which was an interesting game went in favour of Trinity 2-0. Both the goals came off the boot of M. Shan. The Under 18 game went in favour of Trinity 2/1 with Abdulla Cassim and Vinduneth scoring for the winners and Mohammed Usman doing the honours for Royal. The Old Boys game was won by Royal 2-1.
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